Harare - 'Psst," the young man hissed, as I drank a cup of
coffee on the veranda of a roadside cafe. The hisser was furtive, but it was not
diamonds or cocaine that he was trying to sell me - it was food. He was offering
20lb of maize meal for Z$2,500, which is equal to anything from two to 50 pence
depending on which exchange rate you use. The minimum wage for a labourer is
about Z$7,000 a month, the same price as 2lb of imported margarine in the nearby
supermarket. Local margarine is no longer available. We whisper arrangements. I
will meet him behind the garage across the road in 45 minutes. At the appointed
time, I drive along a sanitary lane at the back of the garage, and wait. These
deals take time. Two youths emerge from under a tarpaulin covering the back of a
derelict pick-up and hiss at me. I hiss back. They drag four 20lb sacks of maize
meal into the back of my car. The packs are wrapped in loose plastic sacks to
disguise the tell-tale shape of a 20lb bag. I dig into about three inches of
Z$500 notes, pick out Z$10,000, and the transaction is over. The youths
disappear back under the tarpaulin of the pick-up, and I have my maize, enough
to feed the woman who works for me and her family when I go away for
Christmas.

But more shopping has to be done. Sugar. That is usually
available from youths at a shopping centre further west. As they see my old car
roaring round the corner, they smile and disappear for a couple of minutes,
re-emerging with a 4lb pack of sugar in a cardboard box. The price has gone up
to Z$500. Next on my list is milk. Too late - it's 9.30am and all the milk in
the supermarkets was sold an hour earlier. The bread queues at bakeries are too
formidable to join. Many of the bakeries are next door to coffee shops, yet
sipping a cappuccino while watching people queue for food is too uncomfortable.
Then a blow to the solar plexus. Why the hell didn't I notice that my petrol
gauge was near empty? We had a week of no fuel queues, and like summer, I
thought it would go on for ever. There is not enough in the tank to get to my
"stash". A stash, or a friendly garage owner, is essential for those who cannot
face queuing - or rather can afford not to. A friend drives 10 miles away, fills
up at my friendly garage, then drives to me, and we suck a tube and siphon
enough petrol to get me to the garage to fill up. I will have to phone 10
minutes ahead before getting there - which is difficult as mobile phones hardly
work. Calling ahead is necessary so that the garage owner can tell me if the
coast is clear, so that he can arrange for me to jump the queue without being
lynched as a "white supremacist". On the way back from my hunt for maize meal,
sugar and milk, I pass children begging at traffic lights. There are six traffic
lights to get through before home, and at each one I give them sugar, a
teaspoonful wrapped in paper, taken from coffee shops. There is no point in
giving them money, as most people cannot afford to give enough on a regular
basis to buy even a banana, and sugar is a treat.

Along the roads, the four-wheel-drive vehicles speed to the
suburbs, driven by rich members of the black middle class, girls with hair
expensively plaited, ears fixed to cell phones. On the side of the uneven
streets, the dwindling working class trudge home, unable to afford even a bus
ticket. Out in the desolate townships and shanty towns it's worse. A woman bit
the lip off another who jumped a queue a couple of weeks ago. On a hot afternoon
recently fists flew at a bread queue on the western outskirts of town. At a
township east of Harare on the same day there was a queue for cheap maize meal
distributed by a local ruling party official touting for votes at an upcoming
by-election. He was selling it to people with a ruling party card that pre-dated
the disputed March presidential elections, which gave President Robert Mugabe
another six years in power. Opposition youths, who far outnumbered the ruling
party shoppers, were grinning broadly. They claimed to have "redistributed" some
of the food to those who had been turned away. Last week, the World Food
Programme issued a sudden warning about the deteriorating food situation in
Zimbabwe. Yet for those whose pockets are stuffed with a few inches of Z$500
notes, everything can still be all right in Harare.

Harare - Zimbabwe is worst off among the six southern African
countries threatened with famine, which is a crisis rooted in the Aids epidemic
and not just crop failures and hunger, a top UN official said on Thursday.
Stephen Lewis, the UN's special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa, told a press
conference that southern Africa was facing "deadly human destruction" due to
famine because the immune systems of many people have been run down due to
HIV/Aids. Fifteen million people in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland
and Mozambique are threatened with starvation, and five million adults are
living with HIV/Aids in these six countries. "Zimbabwe in many ways is the
epicentre in southern Africa - it's where everything at the moment amongst the
six countries is at its worst," said Lewis. Nearly eight million people, or more
than two-thirds of Zimbabwe's population of 11.6 million, are threatened with
famine. And at least 2.2 million Zimbabweans are living with HIV/Aids. "There's
no question that this calamity is something that neither this country, nor the
continent nor any of us have ever dealt with before," Lewis noted. The special
envoy, who is on a trip to four of the six affected countries, including
Zimbabwe, met on Thursday with President Robert Mugabe. Asked whether he felt
the Zimbabwean government was doing enough to deal with the crisis, the UN envoy
said Mugabe had spoken "with concern" about the crisis. "I got the sense when he
(Mugabe) was talking of someone who was certainly deeply aware of what was
happening," said Lewis. He said he held a serious discussion with Mugabe about
possible methods of intervention that could be used to overcome the crisis.
Deputy Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri was reported by the Ziana state news
agency as having told Lewis the number of Zimbabweans needing food aid had
climbed to eight million people from the previous figure of 6.7
million.

What have you done?Iden
WetherellTHOSE who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to
repeat them,it is said.

I was pondering this maxim recently and
wondering why so few commentatorshave picked up the obvious fact that
Zimbabwe is replete with lessons fromits own struggle for liberation that
have application today. The SouthAfrican experience is also
salutary.

The Rhodesian and South African regimes had by the
mid-1960s closed off allavenues of peaceful protest against their narrow
exclusivist rule. TheSuppression of Communism Act in South Africa in 1950
and subsequent lawsdirected against the ANC and PAC made civil protest
impossible.

Defiance campaigns and demonstrations against the pass laws
which had been afeature of civic protest in the 1950s proved impracticable
after 1960 as themachinery of the state was mobilised to crush protest of
any sort. Theresult was the formation of underground structures as revealed
at theRivonia trials.

In Southern Rhodesia the Law and Order
(Maintenance) Act, passed in 1960 butextensively amended thereafter, which
suffocated dissent, and the refusal ofthe Rhodesian Front regime to
countenance democratic reforms led to anexodus of young Zimbabweans who were
organised outside the country in whateventually became the Patriotic
Front.

Today we are witnessing the suppression of civic protest on
much the samescale. Many would argue that conditions are in many respects
worse thanthose prevailing in the 1960s. The government has declared war on
thedemocratic opposition, it has subverted the justice system, and
madelegitimate protest impossible. Twenty-nine members of the NCA were
arrestedand detained over the weekend for doing nothing more than exercising
theirconstitutional right to demonstrate for a new
constitution.

The Public Order and Security Act, little different in
form and content fromthe Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, makes it an
offence to denigrate thepresident who, as head of government and the ruling
party, is a major playeron the political stage who doesn't hesitate to
denigrate his opponents.

Another law passed this year, the Access to
Information and Protection ofPrivacy Act, seeks to prevent the press from
performing its watchdog role onbehalf of society.

Thousands of
Zimbabweans are leaving the country every year because it isgoverned by a
party that has destroyed their job prospects and made it anoffence to
complain.

But while some comparisons are valid, with important
lessons to convey, thesituation today is obviously not identical to that of
30 years ago. Thereare now ten times as many Zimbabweans living outside the
country as therewere at the height of the liberation war in the late
1970s.

Under Ian Smith the economy held up well despite sanctions.
Today it is awreck and seven million people face
starvation.

Despite such adversity there is fortunately no
possibility at present of acivil war along the lines of the insurrection
that took place here after1972 in which 30 000 lives were lost. The main
opposition party, the MDC, iscommitted to peaceful and democratic means in
its quest for change.

But the nation is being dangerously divided
along a number of lines. Anybodyunder 30, apart from a handful bought by the
ruling party, is likely tosupport the opposition. So are urban residents who
are mostly unamenable tothe facile blandishments - not to mention insults -
of the president and hisparty. People living in towns with access to
information (the real sort)know how national resources have been squandered
by what one writer to ourLetters column this week describes as a
kakistocracy - government by theworst people.

The residents of
Harare and Bulawayo know perfectly well President Mugabe isanything but a
national saviour.

Educated people are also overwhelmingly opposition
supporters. Nobody with amodicum of intelligence is going to swallow the
daily diet of puerilepropaganda put out by the ruling party. Go onto any
campus and ask studentswhat they think about Zanu PF and they will frankly
tell you.

This unanimity of views is hardly surprising. The political
process atpresent consists of nothing more than Zanu PF attempting to break
out of therural cul-de-sac to which it was confined by the electorate in
2000. It istrying to beat and buy its way out of that political exile by the
abuse ofstate power including selective food distribution. At the same time
it isillegally crushing dissent. That is a recipe for strife. No government
canindefinitely sustain its tyranny by resort to force.

So what
do we do? How does a democratic movement, committed to civic
values,including parliamentary and judicial due process, confront a regime
whichholds those values in contempt and is prepared to use force to
preventpeaceful mobilisation? The obvious answer is to put tens of thousands
ofpeople on the streets as the South African mass democratic movement did
inthe 1980s. What is needed is a critical mass that cannot be bludgeoned
intosubmission.

This is not going to be an easy business. The
police clearly have orders tobreak up even the smallest gathering despite
the fact that freedom ofexpression and assembly are constitutionally
guaranteed. The problem iscompounded by the fact that Zimbabwe, unlike South
Africa, has no culture ofcivic protest. The images of South African clerics
and trade union leadersmarching peacefully arm in arm through Johannesburg
and Cape Town in the1980s are unlikely to be repeated here. Can you imagine
our cowardlyprelates from the Catholic Bishops Conference or the Zimbabwe
Council ofChurches venturing out of their episcopal burrows?

We
need to do more to lay a civic foundation before street protest cansucceed.
Civic awareness can take a number of forms from advocacy of ademocratic
constitution to worker education. Lawyers, academics, students,trade
unionists and business people all have a role to play.

Cowards and
collaborators with Zanu PF's tyranny need to be exposed as such.As the
regime's legitimacy inexorably evaporates - as is currentlyhappening - and
its incapacity to deliver necessities like food or fuel isrevealed, civil
society will be better placed to mobilise the masses whohave already, in
2000 and March this year, demonstrated resistance todespotism. Those taking
to the streets will understand what they are doingthere and will respond
non-violently to police provocation. Events this weekin Venezuela where the
people are confronting another populist demagogueshould be
instructive.

This is a learning process. But it has to be undertaken.
The sooner thebetter. Ask yourself as 2002 draws to a miserable close: What
organisationam I a member of that is working for change? What have I done
this year tomake a difference?

Land invaders scupper streetkids projectTaurai
DzengerereA GROUP of landless people, led by war veterans, has barred the
ZimbabweStreet Children Rehabilitation Trust from constructing a home for
streetkidsat Hopley Farm along Chitungwiza Road, after illegally occupying
the site,the Zimbabwe Independent has been told.

The patron of the
Trust is First Lady Grace Mugabe who has already acquiredanother farm in
Mazowe, ostensibly for the same purpose. The trust ischaired by Jewel Bank
CEO Gideon Gono.

Harare City Council public relations officer,
Cuthbert Rwazemba said councilhad donated the land to the trust for the
development of a home forstreetkids, who have become an eyesore in the city
centre. But it had beeninvaded by landless people as part of government's
agrarian reformprogramme.

"The acting town clerk has reported
that the Street Children RehabilitationTrust has advised that the land in
question has been occupied by a group oflandless people who have erected
some structures," said Rwazemba.

He said the organisation could not
develop the land unless the illegalsettlers were
removed.

Rwazemba said the trust had already withdrawn from the
site.

"The trust is no longer interested in developing the land for
therehabilitation of the street children," he said.

The council
planned to remove the illegal settlers. The land was reservedfor its
original purpose and would be offered to any other organisationinterested in
developing a home for street children.

Land invasions started in
February 2000 when war veterans invaded whitecommercial farms in Masvingo
marking the beginning of a countrywide lawlessand often violent campaign
which has displaced more than 3 000 farmers and150 000 farm workers to
date.

Beef prices have soared in recent months owing to the
significant drop inthe number of cattle available for slaughter and
profiteering by butcheries.

The Cold Storage Company and private
abattoirs are scrambling for cattleresulting in increased prices for
beasts.

Traditionally, during this time of the year farmers are reluctant
to selltheir beasts because of the availability of grass.

This year
the problem has been compounded by the de-stocking throughout theyear by
white commercial farmers whose land was redistributed to
indigenousfarmers.

New farmers are starting to buy cattle and are not
expected to send manycattle for slaughter this year. Cattle rearing is a
long-term business notideal for farmers looking for quick returns on
investments.

Private abattoirs that manage to secure cattle are
continuously increasingtheir prices, forcing butcheries to push up prices as
well.

Retailers have increased the price of beef from around $990 a
kilogramme tobetween $1 200 and $2 000 on average.

Abattoirs are,
however, still selling super grade beef for $900 a kg, choicebeef for $890 a
kg, commercial for $850 a kg and economy beef for $650 a kg.

Controlled
prices are $375 for a kg of super grade meat, $250 and $275 a kgfor choice
and commercial meat respectively.

Some butcheries in high-density suburbs
are selling low-grade beef at a flatprice of $1 200 a kg.

The retail outlets are also
now selling high quality beef cuts such as rumpbrisket, blade and T-bone at
prices ranging from $1 750 to $ 2 000 a kg, upfrom around $1 695 a kg.
Fillet is being sold at prices of up to $2 250 a kgat some city
butcheries.

The Cold Storage Company (CSC) which has gone for a month
without beef,sells super grade meat for $975 a kg, choice for $975 a kg,
commercial for$825 a kg and economy for $775 a kg.

"We have gone for
a month without beef," said a sales official at thecompany. "There is no
meat now."

The profit margins for butcheries have now come under intense
scrutiny.While they are not expected to sell beef at prices below wholesale
pricestheir profit margins have to be reasonable.

At present, some
butcheries are putting over 100 percent mark up. Butcheryowners gave various
reasons to justify the increases.

"Prices are going up for other things,
so we have to do like wise," said acity butchery owner. "Abattoirs have not
hiked the price of beef butoverheads for us have gone up. So we have to make
up for this."

Other butchery owners cited transport costs and the need to
make a goodreturn on their purchases.

"When inflation is low its
reasonable to make a mark-up of say 8 or 10percent," said one butchery owner
in Mabvuku. "But when it's high as it isnow, you have to increase
accordingly, otherwise you will not be able topurchase more
goods."

However, consumers say there is no reasonable justification for
butcheriesto hike the price of beef.

They accuse the business sector
of speculative pricing, profiteering andbeing generally greedy when it comes
to pricing.

Consumers also condemned the business sector for believing
that priceincreases were the only panacea to viability problems.

"We
know things are tough in the business world," said Mrs Jane Matare
ofGreendale. "But the situation does not warrant regular and
unjustifiedincreases."

Private abattoirs dominating the beef industry
increased beef prices for allgrades by 15 percent in March 2001. By then,
the wholesale prices foreconomy beef rose to $66 a kg from $57 while
commercial beef price went upto $80 a kg from $68.

At the time,
retailers paid $110 a kg up from $95 and up to $120 a kg forsuper and choice
beef grades.

It was common for butcheries to increase prices by around
$45 for economyand commercial grades and for up to $55 for super and choice
grades.

A year later, greed and speculative motives have crept into the
wholepricing system pushing prices of beef to unimaginable and
unjustifiedlevels.

"It's the 'everything-is-going-up syndrome' which
is driving us to chargeunrealistic prices," said Mrs Matare. "It's pure
greed and sheer drive forprofiteering."

Last year, a retailer would
put up a margin of $45 for lower grades and $55for high quality beef grades.
Presently, butcheries are putting margins ofbetween $400 and $1 000 a kg for
both low and high quality beef grades.

The Government was forced to
impose a price freeze on a whole range ofproducts and services to protect
consumers from profiteering bymanufacturers and distributors.

The
price of the listed goods and services cannot be increased for the nextsix
months.

However, beef prices will stabilise as
efforts are being made to rebuild thenational herd.

The Livestock
Development Trust (LDT) is at the forefront of the rebuildingefforts. It has
so far distributed at least 15 000 beasts to about 8 000
newfarmers.

Zimbabwe's national herd was depleted following the 1992
drought, the worstin living memory, which reduced the number of cattle to
about five million.

At least 1,6 million livestock died during the 1992
drought.

The national herd is estimated to be 5,7 million with an asset
value of $60billion. Of the 5,7 million cattle, 4,5 million is found in the
communal andresettlement areas while the remaining 1,2 million is in the
commercialfarming sector.

The Government this year allocated $450
million to the trust that wasestablished last year to assist new farmers to
get livestock on credit.

Under the programme, farmers who require
livestock apply to the truststating the type and number of cattle they
require.

The trust would then either allocate the cattle or ask the
farmers to lookfor the cattle themselves for which the trust would
pay.

The scheme also includes a number of other programmes, such as
cowssupplementation and artificial insemination.

The massive national
herd restocking investment exercise has resulted in theempowerment of the
resettled farmers as they now have access to loans theycould not get before
because of the collateral demanded by financialinstitutions.

This
empowerment policy is also being developed to promote livestockproduction
for the lucrative multi-billion dollar beef industry, which is aforeign
currency earner.

Zimbabwe and Libya recently signed a deal that would see
the formersupplying the latter with a quota of 5 000 tonnes of beef per
year.

A proposal has been made that 50 percent of that quota should come
from thecommunal areas.

LDT senior administrative officer, Mr Forbes
Muvirimi, said farmers hadalready dried up the $450 million allocated by the
Government because of theoverwhelming response.

Initially, he said,
the beneficiaries were allocated a maximum of 15 herd ofcattle per
individual farmer but this had to be revised downwards followingthe
popularity of the programme.

"We are waiting for additional funds from
the Government to expand theprogramme since the farmers are raring to go,"
Mr Muvirimi said.

At least more than $1 billion was needed to
successfully rebuild thenational herd over the next three years. The trust
was facing severalchallenges in its efforts to assist the new farmers to
secure livestock oncredit.

"Some farmers have no adequate knowledge
about the type of cattle suitablefor their areas while the other challenge
is the shortage of quality bullswhich are essential for the breeding
programme," Mr Muvirimi said.

Some of the cattle distributed to the
farmers, he said, were also dying ofdiseases such as heart
water.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union director Mr Sylvester Tsikisayi said the
number offarmers who had benefited from the trust's livestock input scheme
was a dropin the ocean.

"There is need for the Government to allocate
more resources to therestocking exercise in order for more farmers to
benefit from the scheme,"he said.

Mr Tsikisayi said some of the
cattle distributed to the farmers were dyingof diseases because of the
shortage of dipping chemicals.

He called for closer co-operation among
the ZFU, LDT and the Department ofVeterinary Services in order for the
restocking exercise to be a success.

The ZFU, Mr Tsikisayi said, had put
in place an insurance scheme for farmersto ensure that those who lost their
cattle through genuine reasons would becompensated.

The Government's
efforts of restocking the national herd have been boostedby the support of
other organisations like the Indigenous Commercial FarmersUnion (ICFU) and
World Vision International.

ICFU president Mr Davison Mugabe recently
said the union was seeking toraise up to $500 million for the establishment
of a "cattle bank" that wouldguarantee the future of the beef
industry.

He said a number of white commercial farmers whose farms had
been designatedhad slaughtered their cattle in order to sabotage efforts to
restock thenational herd.

The de-stocking exercise was taking place
despite a policy put in place bythe Government early this year of protecting
the slaughter of female beasts.

This followed reports that the country's
total herd of breeding cattle hadgone down drastically from an estimated one
million to about 400 000.

The plans to set up a cattle bank, Mr Mugabe
said, had reached an advancedstage and ICFU members would be expected to
contribute a minimum of twoheads of cattle each for breeding under the
scheme.

On the other hand, World Vision International was complementing
theGovernment's efforts of restocking the national herd through the
AreaDevelopment Programme (ADP) which was initiated in 1996.

The
donor agency in July this year distributed more than 100 heifers and 12bulls
to villagers in Mudzi in Mashonaland East province.

The beasts, bought at
a cost of more than $3,7 million, would go a long wayin empowering the
villagers.

Beneficiaries of the ADP would pay half the costs of the
beasts, a move thatwould ensure that the recipients utilise the cattle
properly as well aspromote good management.

POLICE in Bulawayo have instituted investigations into the
disappearancefrom the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe of a gold necklace
and two otheritems belonging to the last Ndebele monarch, King Lobengula,
last week amidclaims that museum officials are the prime
suspects.Matabeleland police spokesperson, Smile Dube, confirmed that police
wereinvestigating the case but he would not be drawn into giving details of
theinvestigations or saying whether senior museum staff were under
probe."We cannot specify the exact nature of our investigations into the
mattersince this would jeopardise our progress on the case, but we are
leaving nostone unturned in the matter," Dube said.The disappearance of
the exhibits from the museum has caused a furore amongthe royal Khumalo clan
who have called upon the police to act swiftly torecover the
property.The disappearance of the items comes exactly two years after the
theft fromthe same museum of a One Thousand Guinea Gold Trophy valued at
US$50million.One of the stolen items was a priceless gold watch that had
belonged to apioneer missionary, the Reverend Robert Moffat. Sources in the
museum toldthe Zimbabwe Independent that it was impossible to break into the
museumconsidering the tight security in place."This looks suspiciously
like an inside job and considering that seniormuseum officials were
reluctant to bring in the police raises suspicionsthat they were involved.
Chances are very high that they are, since therewas no forced entry," said
the source.The stolen exhibits were kept in a glass compartment at the
museum whosesecurity features include a burglar alarm and a closed-circuit
televisionmonitor.Efforts to contact the executive director of the
Department of NationalMuseums, Godfrey Mahachi, proved fruitless but an
official in the departmentconfirmed the disappearance of the
exhibits."The Department of Museums is still assessing how the items went
missing andis going to investigate what else is missing from our inventory.
Once thatis done, we will be in a position to comment on the thefts," said
theofficial.A spokesperson for the Khumalo clan, Peter Khumalo, said the
family would doeverything possible to recover the lost property. "The police
should takeswift action to recover the royal property and we are going to
demand a fulllist of the remaining artefacts in the museum," Khumalo
said.

Mangwana threatens TswanasMthulisi MathuthuIN a
move that could further strain already frayed relations between Harareand
Gaborone, it has emerged that the Minister of State for StateEnterprises and
Parastatals in the President's office, Paul Mangwana,threatened to flush out
all Tswanas from Zimbabwe during an angry exchangewith Botswana MP and head
Of delegation, Shirley Sekgogo, in Brusselsrecently.

He is understood
to have said this while menacingly wagging a finger at theMP ahead of last
week's aborted EU/ACP joint parliamentary assembly.

Mangwana, who led the
Zimbabwean delegation, is said to have confrontedSekgogo during a
lunch-break on Monday last week following her forthrightspeech in which she
blamed Zimbabwe for scuttling regional investmentopportunities and for
lawlessness.

Sekgogo, MP for Selebiphikwe which borders Zimbabwe,
also blamed Mugabe'sgovernment for triggering the exodus of Zimbabweans to
Botswana due to itspolitical repression and economic
mismanagement.

An irate Mangwana who together with his counterpart Chris
Kuruneri and otherZimbabweans working at the Brussels embassy had earlier
tried to shoutSekgogo down, is said to have taken issue with the speech and
confrontedSekgogo in full view of other delegates shouting at the top of his
voice.

"You Batswana people are always harassing us. We will drive
you all out ofZimbabwe," he is alleged to have said while scowling and
wagging a finger ata stunned Sekgogo.

"You have been ill-treating
our people for too long and now you say all thisrubbish about
us."

"I
was right there and was just telling Mangwana to stop it but he told meoff,"
said Mzila who is MP for Bulilimamangwe North. "All Sekgogo had saidwas the
truth but Mangwana didn't want to hear the truth."

Mzila said
Mangwana looked as if he was about to manhandle her had it notbeen for other
Botswana male delegates who pulled Sekgogo aside and shoutedat Mangwana in
Setswana to leave her alone.

Diplomats in Harare told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week that theBotswana government will formally complain to
Harare over Mangwana'sremarks. Botswana's ambassador to Brussels, George
Sesinyi, has alreadycomplained to the EU and the ACP, sources say.

Airzim contracts SA engineersBlessing ZuluIN an
attempt to avert threats to passenger safety, the beleaguered
nationalairline, Air Zimbabwe has hired 15 South Africans to bolster its
depletedpool of engineers and is paying them in foreign currency, the
ZimbabweIndependent has learnt.

Sources at the national carrier
said the 15 were being paid hefty amounts inforeign
currency.

"The South Africans are reportedly being paid US$440 each
per day and theywork for five days," said a source. "They are being
accommodated at a localhotel."

Air Zimbabwe acting managing
director Rambai Chingwena confirmed to theIndependent that the airline had
hired the South Africans.

"Air Zimbabwe has indeed hired 15
engineers, not to bolster its manpower butto carry out a specific 10-day
assignment," said Chingwena.

"The assignment is to complete a major
maintenance programme otherwise knownas a "C" check on the aircraft which
was abandoned after it had beendismantled by the engineers, most of whom we
have now dismissed fromemployment. This stripped aircraft was being used as
a ransom by theengineers to coerce and corner management into submitting to
theirunaffordable salary demands. After the 10-day period or soon
aftercompletion of this aircraft, the South African engineers will return
tobase," he said.

Chingwena said 89 engineers had been dismissed
from the airline ondisciplinary grounds.

"Cases are pending
before the Ministry of Labour for the remaining 50," hesaid.

The
striking engineers were served with letters firing them last week andthey
have since taken up the matter with their lawyers at Gill, Godlonton
&Gerrans.

Meanwhile, the visa requirement imposed by Britain
on Zimbabweans wishing totravel to that country has hit the national
airline.

Passengers have had to be refunded millions of dollars due
to cancellations.But Chingwena said this was not unusual.

"We are
reimbursing those passengers that did not succeed to secure visas interms of
standing rules and we are doing so voluntarily as a matter
ofpractice.

"The reimbursement of passengers' payments are not
restricted to people whohave been affected by visas alone. This happens all
the time in our system.It is also industry practice," he
said.

Commenting on the effects of the visas on Air Zimbabwe's
flights, the actingMD said the impact was minimal.

"We are not
alarmed by the reduction in passenger numbers due to theintroduction of
visas. Our flights for December are very healthy. Thereduction in passenger
numbers is approximately 20% and consists largely ofpassengers whose
applications for visas are still pending," Chingwena said.

Tough time for Zim asylum seekersLoughty
DubeTHOUSANDS of Zimbabweans fleeing President Mugabe's misrule and
harsheconomic conditions at home are set to find their way to the United
Kingdomblocked after the British government last week moved to reduce the
chancesof asylum seekers making successful claims in that
country.

The British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, last Friday scrapped
the"exceptional leave to remain" (ELR) arrangement that allowed
unsuccessfulasylum applicants to stay in Britain until their cases were
heard.

The decision means that thousands of migrants, among them
Zimbabweans,Iraqis and Somalis, who were given the right to live temporarily
in Britainbecause of compelling grounds, could now be sent back
home.

The British government announced that it would replace ELR with
a new statuscalled "humanitarian protection" which the government said would
be muchtighter and only apply to claimants who proved they could not safely
returnhome.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Foreign
Affairs spokesman, MosesMzila Ndlovu, said the MDC was concerned by the
latest developments.

"The MDC is gravely concerned with developments
in Britain over thecancellation of ELR for asylum seekers and we will see
victimised peoplehaving nowhere to seek refuge," Ndlovu said.

"We
hope the British will reverse this decision and allow victims ofpolitical
violence to stay, especially Zimbabweans."

The British Home Office
said the move to annul ELR was prompted by sharpincreases in the number of
people applying for asylum in the last threemonths.

The number of
asylum applications made in the period from July to Septemberthis year was
29 100.

In the first nine months of the year 62 480 asylum claims
were made comparedto 53 660 for last year and the statistics suggest the
total for 2002 willbe the highest on record.

The British
Immigration minister, Beverly Hughes, said ELR was being abused.

"I
believe that our use of ELR has encouraged abuse and acted as a pullfactor,
encouraging economic migrants to apply for asylum in the UK in thebelief
that they will be given ELR when their asylum claim is rejected,"said
Hughes.

Thousands of Zimbabweans who have left the country on
political grounds areamong those on the list of people on
ELR.

The British Home Office said there has been a surge in asylum
applicationsfrom Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Habib
Rahman of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said thedecision
by the British government was "shocking". Others agreed.

Leigh Daynes
of Refugee Action said: "The abolition of ELR is deeplydisturbing. As global
political events and human rights abuses continue touproot innocent people,
the government must extend protection to those whoneed it."

No takers for $60b AgribondAugustine Mukaro/ Godfrey
MarawanyikaGOVERNMENT'S last minute attempt to raise funds to kick-start the
landreform programme has suffered a serious setback as the recently-launched
$60billion Agribond has failed to fly due to no takers, the
ZimbabweIndependent has established.

Market analysts said investors
developed cold feet in committing their moneyto the much-touted Agribond
because of its low retention incentive anduncertainties surrounding the
agricultural sector.

"The Syfrets Corporate and Merchant
Bank-spearheaded Agribond is offering apaltry 29% yield rate while other
investments in the markets yield not lessthan 45%, making investors snub
it," one economist said.

"The $5 billion FSI Agricom
private-placement bond floated almost at thesame time with the Agribond is
offering 45% in returns and has so farreceived a better response," he
said.

The bond was floated in two forms, the short-term Agrobill
worth $25 billionand valid for up to 275 days, and the long-term Agribond
worth $35 billionwhose tenure is three years with a 45% interest per annum,
payablesemi-annually in arrears.

For the three-year Agribond, a
capital redemption/sinking fund has to be putin place by the issuer, of
which 20% of the money lent to farmers has to berepaid in the first year,
30% in the second year and the remaining 50% inthe third
year.

For the 275 days Agrobill, there is a 29% discount per annum
whose specialfeatures include a tax exemption on the
coupon.

"There is no forward movement in terms of the bond issues
because whengovernment decided to finally float the bond investors had
already taken aposition to snub it," the economist said.

"This
was made worse by the confusion caused by the monetary policyannounced two
weeks ago. We have never seen such a monetary policy over theyears and
no-one really knows what is happening."

The failure to attract the
much-needed investors to finance the land reformexercise, despite banks
initially agreeing in principle to assist, has beencaused by financial
institutions' reluctance to participate due to the riskassociated with the
scheme.

Analysts said government had tried to bulldoze its
economy-damaging policiespast financial institutions but the cracks emerging
on the bonds flotationindicated the land reform programme was poised to fail
if no outside capitalinjection was secured.

"Banks made their
position very clear from the outset and there is no wayloans will be availed
to applicants for as long as there is no collateral,"an analyst said.

Companies, which are reeling in a hostile business environment,
said lastweek they were worried about the consequences of Finance minister
HerbertMurerwa's ineffective budget and crippling monetary
policy.

Issues haunting business include the rigid foreign currency
control system,price controls and interest rates.

Zimbabwe
National Chamber of Commerce economist James Jowa said the newforeign
currency policy was "too stringent and would further
hurtcompanies".

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)
president Anthony Mandiwanza saidhis organisation was already talking to
government over the policy issues.

"We are in the process of
discussing with government to find the best wayforward," he
said.

Stockbrokers said the budget
and monetary policy were wreaking havoc on theZimbabwe Stock Exchange
(ZSE).

Analysts said on top of the general budget fiasco, the market
was rudelyshocked by the tightening of foreign exchange
controls.

A market storm over the effect of the government's dual
interest ratespolicy introduced recently to shore up the sinking economy
also worseneduncertainty.

The government suspended its 57,2% bank
rate and introduced different rates:one for exporters and the "productive"
sector and another for importers andordinary borrowers.

A $25
billion revolving fund was established for exporters, who could borrowat 5%,
and "productive" companies, which could borrow at 15%. But exporterssaid the
5% interest rate was meaningless because the government would stillseize
most of their proceeds for 60 days, after which it would decidewhether or
not to pay them on the basis of a priority list and
officialrate.

Importers and ordinary borrowers could access loans
at about 40%.

Analysts said there was no justification for the ad hoc
policy, which theyfeared would create a parallel market for local money in
addition to theballooning foreign currency black market.

The
market haemorrhaging started in earnest after the November 14 budget
wasannounced. The day after the budget, the ZSE's industrials index shed
6238,08 points or 4,84% to land at 122 698,38 points. In the days before
thebudget announcement both the industrials and mining indices had
reachedrecord highs of 130 899,59 and 11 181,20 respectively.

MDC to challenge GMB's monopoly on importsTaurai
DzengerereTHE Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will legally challenge
the GrainMarketing Board (GMB)'s monopoly on cereals marketing, importation
anddistribution unless the party is issued with a licence to import grain,
theZimbabwe Independent has been told.

MDC Agriculture spokesman
Renson Ga-sela in an interview last week said theMDC had applied for a
permit to import about 100 000 tonnes of maize forfree distribution to
starving people throughout the country, but the GMB hasnot
responded.

"If they remain quiet we are going to take them to court,"
said Gasela.

He said the MDC had made several attempts to import food but
had beenblocked by the government.

He said as the food crisis
deepened, the government was importing food usingtaxpayers' funds but was
distributing it on party lines.

"Zanu PF continues to politicise
distribution of food along party lines insuch areas as Insiza, Binga,
Muzarabani and in urban areas as well, whereonly Zanu PF card holders are
allowed to buy mealie-meal," he said.

"Surely MDC supporters and
other Zimbabweans who are not necessarily Zanu PFmembers cannot be left to
starve because of political convictions which theregime has used to keep a
grip on its dwindling support base."

He said the MDC had to date
imported 132 tonnes of maize from South Africaunder the Feed Zimbabwe Trust,
but the maize was still impounded atBeitbridge while millions
starved.

GMB's monopoly was also challenged in court two weeks ago by
FrontlineMarketing (Pvt) Ltd, which is seeking a court order to rescind
theparastatal's monopoly which it says infringes on other companies' right
toassociate with clients of their choice in commercial trade.

The
company has a permit to import maize and wheat but has not been able todo so
because of a statutory instrument that gives the GMB a monopoly toimport and
trade in grain.

Zanu PF firms hold Harare hostageAugustine
MukaroTOP Zanu PF functionaries are milking the Harare City Council of
billions ofdollars a month under a "jobs for the boys" arrangement initiated
by theSolomon Tawengwa-led council and the Elijah Chanakira Commission, it
hasemerged.

In virtually all strategic services which support the
day-to-day running ofthe city, Zanu PF officials and their relatives have
established achoke-hold on the local authority by positioning themselves as
keyproviders, often failing to deliver where it mattered
most.

Highdon
Investments, registered in the name of Debrah and Define Chapfika,was
recently contracted to supply hydrated lime and carbon for watertreatment.
Highdon was paid US$140 000 in September to supply 1 000 tonnesof lime but
has since failed to fully deliver, leading to the loomingclean-water
shortage. Highdon's managing director is Macdonald Chapfika,brother of MP
David Chapfika.

City of Harare department of works director, Vusimuzi
Sithole, told theIndependent that Highdon had delivered less than half of
the chemicals ithad been paid for.

"The mayor has written an
urgent letter to the Reserve Bank because thewater treatment chemicals
situation has become critical," Sithole said.

David Chapfika is the
Zanu PF MP for Mutoko North and former director of thefinancially-mismanaged
Unibank, which is now under new ownership.

He is also the chairman of
parliament's finance committee.

The upgrading of the water
purification plant at Morton Jaffrey Waterworksin Norton was awarded to Leo
Mugabe's company, Integrated Engineering Group.

The company has
failed to adhere to the contract terms, leaving millions ofdollars worth of
equipment lying idle since 1995.

Zanu PF's top brass also controls
the critical refuse collection in Harare.

Three contracted
companies,Encore Consolidated, Broadway, and EnvironmentCleansing, control
refuse collection.

Another refuse collection company, Waste Management
Services, had theircontract terminated by the Chanakira commission in 1999.
They claim theywere disqualified for not having sufficiently close links to
the rulingparty.

City treasury sources said council pays over a
billion dollars for refusecollection every month.

The sources
said there were suspicions that some of the contracted companieswere
thwarting council efforts to obtain the basic essentials in a move totarnish
the MDC-run council's reputation with residents in the
capital.

"Contracted companies could be holding the council to ransom
anddeliberately sabotaging the new council," sources
said.

Department of Health assistant chief environmental health
officer, JohnKandwe, said there was a lot of room for the service providers
to improve.

Executive Mayor Elias Mudzuri said he was in no position to
comment on theissue as he was attending a series of meetings.

PRICES of basic commodities have shot up
by between 50 and 100 percent sincethe government imposed a blanket freeze
two weeks ago on prices of allgoods, a sign, analysts say, that the
Soviet-style clampdown will adverselyaffect the consumers it is supposed to
protect.

A snap survey conducted this week by the Financial Gazette in
Harare'sretail outlets showed that the cost of commodities had continued
toskyrocket after the state decreed that no manufacturer or retailer
wasallowed to hike prices.

Basic foodstuffs and other household
essentials such as laundry and bathsoaps, most of which are in short supply
on the market, recorded the biggestleaps in prices.

A 25-litre gallon
of cooking oil, which only last week was selling for lessthan $15 000, had
shot up to between $25 000 and $34 000 this week, whilethe price of a
standard bath soap tablet jumped to more than $600 from $300in the same
period.

The cost of domestic appliances such as stoves, refrigerators,
televisionsets, video recorders and radios, most of them imported, also went
up by anaverage of more than 50 percent in the past week.

However,
commodities such as sugar, cement, seed and fertilisers, which werealready
scarce on the market before the price freeze, began slowlydisappearing from
shop shelves after the price clampdown.

Shoppers interviewed in Harare
told this newspaper they had planned to takeadvantage of the price freeze to
stock up on groceries for the Christmasholidays but were shocked to see
prices continuing to skyrocket.

Margaret Karedza, a mother of two from
Harare's Southerton suburb said: "Wewonder why the government even bothers
to introduce the price freeze whenthe next thing you find is prices have
doubled."

Industry and International Trade Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi,
who is incharge of price controls, could not be reached yesterday for
comment on thematter.

But analysts said the price freeze was
unworkable and that the governmentshould address rising costs of production
if it wanted to halt spiralling ofprices.

Economist Witness Chinyama
said: "The government should address theproduction costs first before it
introduces the controls, which so far havenot been successful."

He
noted that the government did not have the physical capacity to enforcethe
price controls.

An economist with a Harare commercial bank said: "Price
controls have neverworked anywhere in the world and it is clear they will
not work inZimbabwe."

Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa admitted when
he presented the 2003national budget two weeks ago that controls imposed
last year on prices ofbasic foods had failed because they targeted the final
product withouttaking into account the entire production process.

The
minister also admitted that the controls had adversely affectedconsumers,
who they were supposed to protect. However, the government wenton to
announce the blanket price freeze on all commodities a few days later.

Johannesburg - One of the things that makes the
tragic events to SouthAfrica's north almost farcical is the historical
amnesia of many ofthe commentators.

How could the promoters of an
"African renaissance" (is Andrew Young,former mayor of Atlanta, really one
of them?) have ever held RobertMugabe up as an example to us all? How could
they forget theMatabeleland massacres so shortly after his taking of the
Zimbabweanthrone? And well before that, how could they overlook the way
hetreated dissent during the liberation war?

The truth is that Mugabe
has acted similarly in the past when his backhas been against the wall. He
and his immediate allies have madecoalitions with many different groups -
both inside and outsideZimbabwe - to grab and hang on to the nationalist
mettle. Thesecoalitions have sometimes included veterans and international
powers -including Britain and the United States. Mugabe has turned against
thesoldiers who brought him to power more than once in the
past.Similarly, he has marshalled the British to his cause when he has
hadthe need.

In the wake of the Portuguese coup which accelerated
Angola'sindependence, Guinea- Bissau and Mozambique, Tiny Rowland,
KennethKaunda and John Vorster decided that it was time to bring
Zimbabweannationalists into the fold of moderation. To that end, a
fewZimbabwean nationalists were released from Ian Smith's gaols
fordiscussions in Lusaka. The presidents of the frontline
states,including Samora Machel, were confronted with the fact that Mugabe
anda few of his cell mates had deposed Ndabaningi Sithole from his
Zanupresidency. Machel responded: "What, you've done a coup in
prison?!"

In the months following that prison coup a number of "rebels"
werekilled by Zanu's militariat, and national chair Herbert Chitepo
wasassassinated. Opinion in Zimbabwe is still divided over who
wasresponsible for his death -Rhodesian agents or opponents within
theliberation movement?

In the wake of the internecine struggles
inspired by this "revolutionfrom above" the Zambian state declared Zanu
illegal and incarceratedthose of its soldiers within its borders. This left
a small, veryyoung, very radical and very well-trained group of officers
with thetask of reigniting the war from bases in Mozambique and Tanzania.
Theydid so in short order.

Along the way they made a credible attempt
to implement JuliusNyerere's desire to unify Zanu and Zapu armed forces, as
well asstarting up a college devoted to materialist analysis of
theshortcomings of nationalism as they were experiencing it.
Theysucceeded to such an extent that the West soon arranged for
theinfamous Geneva Conference of October 1976. There, the leaders of
the"free world" could find out who they could deal with among the
manypretenders to the mantle of Zimbabwean nationalism.

In the
meantime, Mugabe and colleagues such as Edgar Tekere werecooling their heals
under house arrest in Quelimane. The new youngleaders of the war were
admitting him to their camps - against thewishes of the Mozambicans -
because they had been so badly betrayed bySithole. Mugabe was the only one
in the "old guard" they could trustto some degree - or so they thought. He
took this grace as the signalthat he was their man. When he visited London
he announced to theworld that he was with the guerrillas.

When the
call for the Geneva conference was issued, the young soldierswere told by
the frontline presidents to "pick a leader". Theyrefused, advising instead
the formation of a coalition that could notbe torn asunder by Smith. Such a
united front would have even included"puppets" like Bishop Abel Muzorewa and
Sithole, because they did notsee much difference between them and Mugabe,
the leader who appearedto be speaking in their name. Their stance was
essentially that of thenational democratic revolution: if a decent victory
could have beenscored at Geneva, they would have been glad to return to
Zimbabwe andfight a clean democratic election on behalf of the people.
Deprived oftheir chance for a united front, they refused to go until
forced.

Mugabe never forgave them. Within months they were in
Mozambique'sprisons, wherein they stayed until the 1980 elections. It is
possiblethey could have challenged Mugabe's hold on the soldiers in
theMozambican camps, but the first generation of guerrillas - in
controlof most of the security apparatus - was probably against them.
Also,had they followed popular pressure in the camps the Mozambican
armymay well have intervened: for reasons that he may well have
laterregretted but followed him to his grave, Machel had turned against
theyoung Turks.

Smith did manage to pull the slacker nationalists
into his desperateprognostications, thus prolonging the war by more than
three years.Halfway through 1977 Mugabe consolidated his leadership at the
firstparty congress since 1964 with a declaration that the Zanu axe
wouldfall on the heads of people with critical tendencies. The
youngsoldiers' efforts at bottom-up Zanu- Zapu unity was maintained only
ata tactical, very fragile, political level, under the
"PatrioticFront's" thin banner. The Matabeleland massacres show how deep
thatunity was.

It is doubtful that the land invaders up north
represent all the "warveterans". They resemble the anti-democratic and
anti-intellectualallies Mugabe's supporters recruited in the mid-1970s.
Since then thesoldiers have never been, and almost certainly are not now,
unified intheir uncritical support for a leader who has gone way beyond
hismandate.

Furthermore, it as just as likely now as then that a good
proportionof these ex- soldiers would support the broadest range of allies
asthe "national democratic revolution" so badly skewed by Mugabe
wouldallow. Given that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)is a part
ofthat process, it had better make some careful alliances with
thesoldiers in and out of uniform.

Moreover, if one remembers
Mugabe's 1975 trip to England, one shouldnot rule out a deal with the old
colonial masters. They have alwayspreferred a firm hand they can count on to
unruly democracy, and it islikely that even now Mugabe is more reliable to
the old colonial handsthan the MDC -especially if he can claim to have old
and new soldierson his side. After all, if the MDC did win the election and
hold acommission for truth and justice, it would not only be Mugabe's
pastthat would be on open display.

David Moore is a professor in the
department of economic history anddevelopment studies at the University of
Natal